Author Richard Osman makes waves with another captivating murder mystery novel, titled, "We Solve Murders."
Author Richard Osman makes waves with another captivating murder mystery novel, titled, "We Solve Murders."
Review by Louise Ward
Mr Osman is back, but this time, we’re not off to hang with the detectives of Cooper’s Chase. Our new hero is Steve Wheeler, a bereaved ex-copper and low-key private investigator who can be prevailed upon to sort out minor mysteries, like where the heck your cat has got to.
The story begins with a murdered “influencer,” made famous not by his life, but by his death. In the vicinity of this murder is Amy Wheeler, beloved daughter-in-law of Steve.
Amy works for Maximum Impact Solutions and is currently on a close protection detail to guard superstar author Rosie D’Antonio. Rosie’s fiction has upset a very dangerous Russian and the pair are sequestered on a private island.
When it becomes apparent that not only Rosie but Amy is in grave danger Amy persuades her father-in-law, Steve, to forego his pub lunches and insomniac’s 3am wanderings and join in on a manhunt.
There follows a caper across continents involving more wannabe influencers, a great deal of money, an unknown assailant and a retired copper who just wants to do the pub quiz but finds himself in South Carolina, Dubai and Cork.
The bad guy, going under the alias Francois Loubert, keeps himself heavily encrypted using Chap GPT to make him sound like “a friendly English gentleman,” issuing polite threats with his “warm regards”.
This is such a fun adventure, written with the charm for which Richard Osman is known. His characters are warm and engaging, even the suspects, making it all the harder to discern the identity of M. Loubert.
The clues to solve the mystery are set up nicely, the dominoes falling one by one to reveal the identity of the culprit.
